PORT ANGELES — Customers of three small water systems in Clallam County and one in Jefferson County face monthly rate hikes by as much as 94 percent effective June 1, according to a tariff revision filed with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission by Cascadia Water LLC of Sunland.
The Clallam County commissioners have written a letter to the UTC expressing the concerns of the water system customers, asking for a careful review of the proposed increases and questioning whether Clallam County water customers are subsidizing improvements for the company’s other water systems.
The commissioners are scheduled to approve the letter as part of their consent agenda at their next regular meeting, set for 10 a.m. Tuesday in the commissioners’ meeting room in the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St. in Port Angeles.
“This letter is just an attempt to echo the rate increase concerns that several of our residents have,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said during their Monday work session.
“I would note that Dungeness Recreation Area is the county asset that I am aware of that is part of one of these water systems,” he said. “We may have other county assets that are connected to one or more of these water systems.”
A draft of the letter to the commission states, “The ‘ready to serve’ cost is proposed to increase from $24/month to $44/month, while residential base rates are proposed to double.”
According to a legal filing with the commission by Endejan Law LLC of Everett, the monthly increases would amount to 94 percent for the Estates and Monterra water systems and 65 percent for the Pedersen water system in Clallam County, and 35 percent for Discovery Bay Village water system in Jefferson County. The company’s proposal also includes a 24 percent increase for the Aquarius water system in Kitsap County.
The legal filing opposing the increases is available at https://www.utc.wa.gov/casedocket/2024/240151/docsets. The docket number is UW-240151.
“Please review these proposed increases carefully to ensure they are appropriately justified, to ensure that new system-wide assets will in fact be utilized across the company’s multiple systems in multiple counties, and to ensure that ratepayers for some systems are not unduly subsidizing investments in remote system from which they derive no benefit,” The county commissioners’ draft letter states.
The commissioners’ letter also notes that Cascadia is proposing to consolidate its Clallam County water systems, which would create a system with more than 1,000 service connections. That would subject the company to submitting a water system plan to the state Department of Health that would include a detailed operations and maintenance program that covers system personnel, contaminant monitoring and an emergency response program, the letter states.
Ozias said Monterra ratepayers mounted “a pretty significant pushback” a year or two ago to the first round of proposed increases. In that case, the commission ruled in favor to maintain separate rate structures for Whidbey Island, the Olympic Peninsula and Eastern Washington.
Clallam County Administrator Todd Mielke said he had received additional comments Monday morning and at least one of them had a fair amount of detail regarding state laws that might be pertinent.
“I don’t know if there’s a desire to take a look at one or two of those to see if you want to further modify this (letter) or not and provide more detail based on the (Washington Administrative Codes) that these people are citing,” Mielke said.
The commissioners agreed to bring the revised letter for their Tuesday meeting.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached by email at brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
